Complete Fairy Tales by Wilhelm Grimm

Book Description

The tale of 'Cinderella' is told wherever stories are still read aloud and everyone is familiar with 'Rapunzel' and 'The Golden Goose', but who has heard all the wonderful stories collected by the Brothers Grimm? Well, here's your chance, for within these covers you will find every one of their 210 tales, in all their enchantment and rapture, terror and wisdom, tragedy and beauty.

Translator Catherine Riccio-Berry remains faithful to the Grimm Brothers' original folk tales while also demonstrating her own keen ear for the language of playful storytelling. These eighteen carefully selected narratives include Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, and Cinderella.

Reviews

UK Kirkus Review » It is startling to re-read the stories in this collection as an adult. So many of them have been re-written in a form deemed suitable for children or made into Disney films that their imagery and language seem completely new and fresh. Take Cinderella: every child knows that her mice became her footmen and her coach was once a pumpkin. But in the original story there is no pumpkin, no coach, no mice and no footmen and, most surprisingly of all, there is no fairy godmother. Instead, a white bird flies down from a hazel bush growing on Cinderella's mother's grave and grants her neglected daughter's wishes. The original stories are much more brutal than the modern versions - Cinderella's sisters have first a toe and then a heel sliced off so that the golden slipper may fit and later, at their step-sister's wedding, their eyes are pecked out by pigeons. Blood flows from wounds and thorns tear at flesh. In his introduction Padraic Colum refers to the punishments meted out to sinners, commenting that the cruelty is never gratuitous. These are folk tales reflecting household words and household deeds but the good receive compensation and the wicked are punished. The reader is also amazed at the number of stories. We learn from Joseph Campbell's folkloristic commentary that the brothers Grimm worked and lived together collecting tales all their lives, preserving traditional stories wherever they came across them. Fortunately for lovers of literature they were careful to keep the rhymes and repetition that characterize the best in the collection. Every child can recite a version of the following: 'Looking-glass, Looking-glass, on the wall,/Who in this land is the fairest of all?' Generations of children of all ages have loved these wonderful fairy tales and many more will appreciate them now, especially enhanced by Josef Scharl's illustrations. Ages 8+ (Kirkus UK)

Author Biography - Wilhelm Grimm

Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859). Born in Germany, they both studied law before turning to the collection of fairy tales, an endevour which was to occupy them for the rest of their lives.

For every $20 you spend on books, you will receive $1 in Boomerang Bucks loyalty dollars. You can use your Boomerang Bucks as a credit towards a future purchase from Boomerang Books. Note that you must be a Member (free to sign up) and that conditions do apply.